DoomMaster's whereabouts

[yogisumo]

Any computer with a serial port is "designed" to do midi.  Serial communciations at 115,200 bps are not exactly demanding on a modern computer.  That's the max rate of standard serial.  A big 115200bps/8/1024=@14k/s(not taking into account modulation/compression speeds of modems).  A midi interface is a couple of wires and connectors.  How is an entire computer deemed to be "designed for midi" because it has a couple of extra wires in it.  Doesn't even compare to custom chip development (aka Amiga).  A midi interface.....
http://home.concepts-ict.nl/~nctnico/midi/am_midi.txt
Midi isn't exactly demanding on a computer.  The one thing that Atari had was software development.  And that's more chicken and egg than anything else.  Weren't the Atari midi interfaces added *after* the Atari started to have a decent midi software base.  The Amiga's design, conversely, did give it an inherent advantage in certain areas (ie multimedia/games/video).

[BoingBoss]

Why are you guys getting into this stupid debate about which computer is better the Atari ST or the Amiga.  They are BOTH great computers that should have won the computer war.  Ok the Amiga is more powerful then the Atari ST, SO WHAT, WHO CARES !!!!  Does this make the Atari ST a bad computer, NO IT DOES NOT.  The Atari ST is a great computer.  Nuf Said !!!!   :roll:

[BoingBoss]

Hi yogisumo,

Weren't the Atari midi interfaces added *after* the Atari started to have a decent midi software base.

No they were not.  The Atari ST computer ALWAYS had built-in MIDI ports and IS concidered by many to be THE MIDI computer.  I have one of the original Atari 520ST computers in mint condition still packed inside its original box that is also mint.  It has the MIDI ports.  Even though you can ADD a MIDI interface to the Amiga, most Amiga software will NOT "SEE" those MIDI ports.  On the other hand since the Atari ST computer always had built-in MIDI ports most Atari ST software will automatically recognize those ports, especially games.  Have you ever heard the Atari ST version of King's Quest Series and Ultima Series play a MIDI keyboard?  It sounds really nice.  Because of this I always have a MIDI keyboard plugged into my Atari STs MIDI ports.   :-D

[BoingBoss]

Hi Karlos,

Surely, you, the DoomMaster, you want to play Doom3, don't you? Feck, I know I do! It should be out sometime next month allegedly. It sure as hell won't enjoy a P3 500 from what I've read

Doom 3 requires a fast video card which I bought specifically to be able to play this game.  It will run just fine on my PC.  I probably will not like Doom 3 anyway because I heard that it is based on the Halflife engine and I thought that Halflife SUCKED !!!!  While most of you guys were playing Halflife Deathmatch, I was playing Duke Nukem Deathmatch.  Halflife may have better graphics and sound, but Duke Nukem is a hell of a lot more fun to play.  "Hail to the King, baby".   :-D

[Argo]

I very much doubt Doom III is based on the Half-Life game engine. The story maybe, but that would just make it a prettied up rip off of something orignial. Then again how original is having the biggest damn weapon in the game to start with and blowing away everything in sight.

[whabang]

Doom 3 has it's own engine, and it ROCKS; it's better than the original!
I played all morning, before I went to work! :-D

[Orjan]

Besides, Half-Life ROCKS!

Cant wait for Half-Life 2!!!

[yogisumo]

Half life was base on the Quake2 engine.  The Quake series, Quake, QuakeII, QuakeIII, Wolfenstien, Doom, DoomII, DoomIII were all done by IDSoftware.  ID games are almost a showcase for their game engine which they license to other game makers.  A lot of pc games are based on the various Quake game engines.  HalfLife2 is an original game engine that does not use the Quake engine.  Unreal also licenses the core/engine of Unreal to other companies.  Big business.

[yogisumo]

[FastRobPlus]

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So after I buy an Atari, I should run out an buy a midi keyboard for games?
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I did!

[BoingBoss]

Hi yogisumo,

Stating that a computer is "designed for midi" because it had a couple of $0.50 midi ports seems like an exaggeration....

Because the Atari ST has built-in MIDI ports most Atari ST software "sees" those ports and uses them.  But, because the Amiga, Macintosh, and PC computers do not have built-in MIDI ports their software does not "see" the MIDI ports, so they do not automatically play a MIDI keyboard, but the Atari ST computer does.  This is the reason why the Atari ST is concidered to be THE MIDI computer.  Also, many professional musicians use an Atari ST computer to sequence and control their MIDI equipment.  Yes, like the Amiga, the Atari ST is a great computer.   :-D

Did you know that you can also hook up a MIDI keyboard to a PCs sound card and most PC games will play the music through it instead of the speakers?  It sounds really awesome!  The normal sound SFX will still play through the speakers, but the music will be played on the MIDI keyboard.  Here's what you do:

Hook up a MIDI cable to your sound cards game-port.  Then plug a 5-pin DIN MIDI cable from the MIDI-IN on the keyboard to the MIDI-Out on the PC MIDI cable.  Next, setup your game to play the music on 330 instead of 620.  Make sure that this is also set up in your Multimedia Prefs in Windows.  Finally, turn on the MIDI keyboard, load up the game and enjoy.  Make sure that the MIDI keyboard that you buy has GENERAL MIDI printed on it not MIDI.  General MIDI is 16 voices.  MIDI is only 4 voices.  Most MIDI music is created with 16 voices (the Drums are usually on track 10).  So, if you try to play these MIDIs on a 4-voice keyboard they will sound like crap.  So, get yourself a General MIDI keyboard.  The cheaper ones sell for between $200 to $300.  You folks that own a PC and play games on that PC should try this, I think you will like it.    :-D

[BoingBoss]

Hi TjLaZer,

I have a feeling that me and you are going to wind up being good friends.   :-D

[Karlos]

@BoingBoss

General MIDI sucks ;-) Yamaha's XG level 2 MIDI totally "blows the doors off it", but is totally backwards compatible with it at the same time.

I have heard no soundcard that has the quite the clarity of a good quality tonegenerator when it comes to MIDI playback.

/me likes my rackmount.

[BoingBoss]

Hi Karlos,

General MIDI sucks  Yamaha's XG level 2 MIDI totally "blows the doors off it", but is totally backwards compatible with it at the same time.

OK.   :crazy:

[locutus]

*looks at his Hardware Yamaha XG Synth PCI board*

i would care to differ about that second comment ;-))))))

[jeffimix]

I think you can play FF7's music like that... too bad it don't work on WinXP (*looks saddened*)